Background
The roots of Pritchard & Abbott, Inc. (PA) are in the appraisal of oil and gas producing properties. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, PA was founded in 1926 by Judge E. S. Pritchard, an attorney. Judge Pritchard and John L. Abbott, a Petroleum Geologist, teamed up to appraise oil and gas producing properties in the early 1930’s. Based on its reputation for cost-effective and professional appraisal work, the company has become the largest property tax appraisal firm of minerals, industrial, utility and personal property in Texas.
IBM 8202-E4B at V7.1 Running Total/400, Custom RPG Software
PA supports 30-80 users with custom RPG software developed with Total/400 running on an IBM 8202-E4B at V7.1 with 16 GB RAM and 3.5 TB.
Management Favors Operating Expense Over Balance Sheet Asset
Kevin McBurnett, Management Information Systems Manager, explains “With its limited reliability and lack of storage capacity, we knew our 8202 server was on its last legs. Our management favored an operating expense rather than an asset on the balance sheet.”
IBM Increases SWMA Fees, Ends Hardware Support – Time To Look At Cloud400
“IBM kept raising their support fees and notified us that they would not extend our hardware support. These factors prompted us to start exploring IBM i cloud hosting.
Software Provider Allows License Transfer To Different Serial Number
Kevin continues, “In early October Total/400 explained we could transfer the software license to an IBM server with a serial number different from our 8202-E4B.”
Quick Cloud400 Proposal, Management Approval in 7 Days
“We notified Cloud400 of the transferability our software license and our Cloud400 hosting proposal was ready by mid October 2022. Management approved Cloud400 in 7 days. We were ready to start to be live before year end.”
Cloud400 LPAR Set Up And Testing Before Month End
“We had our Cloud400 LPAR set up and started testing before the end of October. All that was great.”
Cloud400 Technical Team Professional, Extremely Knowledgeable, Easy To Work With
“I found the Cloud400 technical team to be professional, extremely knowledgeable, and easy to work with. Alan, Russ, Brian, and Erik — each Cloud400 team member has very specialized expertise, such as IBM i, networking, and backup. They also worked well together as a team and made the migration to Cloud400 seamless. Working with them was great.”
Easy Adjustment of Cloud400 LPAR Resource
“One of the things about the initial testing phase was the ease of adjusting the Cloud400 LPAR resources. After a few days of testing, we noticed that screens were moving faster but qbatch was taking a bit longer. We requested a small increase in the allocated Cloud400 processor to give us 3000 CPW. This has worked much better for us than our on premise server.”
Cloud400 IP Address Glitch Fixed In Minutes
“Also, during the testing phase we found that generating emails from our new Cloud400 IP had been blacklisted by Microsoft. Cloud400’s Brian was very helpful to get our email issue fixed promptly. Brain got with one of his Microsoft contacts and fixed the issue within minutes. I was very thankful for that.”
Easy Cutover – Most Users Experience No Difference
“We went live on January 4, 2023. The cutover took a few hours. We are very pleased. Everything went really well. The Cloud400 guys were great. Many of my users had no idea that we were hosted. That is a good thing – they experienced no difference.”
Huge Improvements. Backup Used To Take 6.5 Hours – Now With VTL Under 2 Hours
“On the other hand, I personally had areas with huge improvements. For example, I used to need 6.5 hours to back up our system to LTO-4 tape. Now with Cloud400 and the Virtual Tape Library, the entire backup takes less than 2 hours. The virtual tape is awesome. I absolutely love it.”
Management Very Happy
“Management is very happy. Cloud400 is only a little bit more than what our IBM lease was. And, we don’t have to deal with hardware issues, tape backup, service calls or IBM i administration. When we need help, we have experts that know us to call on for prompt support.”
Kevin McBurnett Definitely Recommends Cloud400
“I wish we had moved to Cloud400 years ago. Everything went perfectly. We expect to be with Cloud400 a long time.
“If you want to get rid of your hardware, definitely go to Cloud400. It could not be easier. It is a very smooth transition, for sure. I could not be more pleased, and the transition to Cloud400 has been awesome.”